Wednesday, September 9, 2015

Take Your Power Back From Food Allergies

Ever felt powerless at the entrance of a grocery store when
you realize you don't know what you can eat? You find that the food that you had been purchasing for
years is now making you, or your family member ill. Especially when it
is your child that is ill, you become an
avid, somewhat obsessive, label reader.After several bouts of "food Russian
Roulette" you or a family member have been diagnosed with food
allergies.

Me, well, I found avoiding soy, eggs, kelp, gluten, and
dairy is challenging. So that means no store bought
breads, cheese, soups, snacks and more. At
age 11, my daughter seems to have outgrown most of her allergies/intolerances
yet she still must avoid pepper, red dye and almonds.

I make most of my foods, snacks, hair and body products from
scratch, thereby avoiding or lessening the "break-down" at the
entrance of the grocery store. Besides, I now have more knowledge to search and find the ingredients to confidently eat in safety. I am still working on a few baking projects, for instance, making bread that doesn't collapse
since I cannot use an egg in gluten-free recipes. I will
eventually search for and purchase a gluten, soy and egg free recipe book, but
it's more enjoyable experimenting.

I recently made my own granola snack and can't get
enough of it. I will forever love the granola from "Bakery on Main" (their
granola make my neurons happy) but making it myself is truly fun and economical.

I first Googled "how to make your own granola" and found this link... http://bit.ly/1LvWUxJ,
a blog post from the gluten-free goddess. Below is my version.

Like Karen at the Gluten Free Goddess I found this recipe can
be vegan-friendly or not. However, "friendly" is determined by which sweetener you choose. So far in my granola recipe I've used raw honey,
maple syrup, molasses and organic raw cane sugar as sweeteners or combinations. Choose whichever sweetener suits you. However, this version is tailored to be soy-free and gluten-free.
Can I say, I don't always measure so you don't have to be exact.

1/2 cup pure organic
maple syrup or use a combo of raw honey and maple syrup, raw honey and
molasses. Molasses by itself may be too
bitter. So it needs another sweetener
to lighten the taste. My next batch will
be a combo of organic raw sugar and molasses.

2/3 cup coconut or
olive oil (be careful, contrary to the bottle label, not all olive oil is soy
free.) As with the volume of ingredients you choose you may need to add a bit more to coat not saturate. It depends on your quantities of ingredients. I made a larger batch this last time...

I stir
the cranberry/blueberry combo into the glass container I mixed the syrup and
oil in and marinate until I am ready to use.

Instructions:

Preheat the oven to 325º.
Find a baking dish large enough to hold the granola mix. (I don't like Teflon anymore, but that is me.) You may need to use two baking dishes depending on the sizes you have on hand. You want the granola not to stacked. Set baking dishes aside for now. Coat bottom with a small amount of oil.

In a large bowl,
combine the rolled oats, chopped dates and figs, pecans, crunch rice cereal,
chia and flax seeds and stir.

In a glass measuring
cup, combine the your sweetener of choice, along with oil, and vanilla. Mix
well with a fork.

Then, drizzle the
syrup/oil mixture over the oats, and
stir as you go. Gently keep stirring until all the oats are coated with the
syrup/oil blend.

Spread the granola
mixture onto your baking dish. Bake in the center of the oven for
roughly 25-30 minutes until golden and toasty. Stirring half way through is recommended.

Remove the baked granola from the oven
and allow the pan to cool a bit. I add the dried berry combo (that has been marinating in the left over oil/syrup mixture) shortly after removing from the
oven mixing into the already baked granola. I do this when it is still hot, however, not necessarily hot enough to cook the berries. Since my baking dish has a cover I usually
keep it in that container, however, it is important to stir so your baked granola before it completely cools so as not to stick to the
bottom of the pan.

You can pour the
cooled granola into an airtight container and maybe if you are like me, it is
gone is a few days... so my original container works fine.

When you try this recipe, let me know what you think. Don't let the food allergies and food intolerances overtake you, your power and well being. Get your power back too! Become that avid, somewhat obsessive, label reader and feel better. Have fun with it and as always be savvy and scent free!